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Topic: 396 dipstick tube color??? (Read 13850 times)

If you ever take the long case bolts out let me know what you find. The end plate on my starter is natural, I did rebuild it but can not remember taking any black paint of the cover, or for that matter, why I would.Is the cast mounting section also painted black?

The car is on a lift so it's easy to lower the starter and look at the nose finish. The end plate looks easy enough to remove so I can do that.With the end bolts removed what are you looking for specifically?

A consensus has been reached that the starter was completely painted as an assembly. That means that special attention would have to be taken with the cast end housings so that proper grounding would be achieved between the starter and the block for auto and bell housing for stick. As for the bolts, just looking for paint build up. Just do not remember the end plate and casting being painted.

I removed the starter motor and gave it a wiping of gunk. Good thing I took it down because the top of the solenoid was cracked and a large piece missing. I looked at the motor and noted the following.* The long end screws (bolts) had traces of paint on the heads and under the heads were clear so it was painted assembled.* The nose shows no obvious signs of a 'clean area'. The picture does show the paint edge at the nose and the other shows traces of black paint all over.* The two motor mounting bolts however show that when it was tightened it dug into the metal. * The paint looks to be a gloss black or a shiny semi gloss.

Here is my thinking of grounding for the starter motor....the rear support that is held with a nut as shown in UPC L35/A5 may be the intended method of grounding the motor body to the block through the long main case bolt with the threaded stud on the end.

Per John Pirkle Jr, "All of the information Dad and I have collected(archives,pictures,and interviews with engineers and line workers from the early 50s through the early 80s) shows that the starter was painted as an assembled unit,so the rivets,pole shoe screws,etc.would also be painted.The solenoid was masked in some instances,so you saw both painted and plated units."

After carefully cleaning out the stamped letters I can clearly see black paint inside the stamped area. There is even paint on the pin and C clip that holds the shift fork so the whole unit looks to have been painted as an assembly.The solenoid is black with Delco in the middle. The case itself looks to be zinc.

Mike,Did you notice if the starter mounting pad on the block has paint on it.The starter being painted black as an assembly still causes me to wonder about a good ground return. All ground wires on the Camaro have star or lock washers to achieve a good ground through painted surfaces. Looking at L35 A5 no such precaution was taken on any of the starter fasteners.With the block being painted and the starter brace being painted, bolt #4 would not be a very good ground return even if #4 nut cut through the paint on the bracket.Bob

The engine block area the starter nose contacts had several spots of paint on it. I examined the two block bolt areas carefully and though I can see paint traces around where the outside of the bolt would sit, the areas that came in contact with the metal are slightly scarred from digging and there is no paint on it that I can see and nothing on the bolt heads either that came in contact with the starter. That makes me wonder if the bolt holes were plugged when painted (and solenoid covered), sort of like when the engine had caps on things like water pump necks when being painted. That's the only thing that makes sense. I wonder of John Pirkle Jr. would know.